How Accurate Weather Data Helps Optimize Offshore Operations

In the Offshore industry, timely, accurate and actionable weather data is critical.

Whether you’re working in The North Sea, West Africa, South East Asia, GoM, Middle East or elsewhere, metocean conditions affect all areas operations. A reliable and accurate forecasting tool is essential to increase operating thresholds and maximize vessel operability on a project.

Working with a global weather authority can help offshore companies understand, with greater accuracy, the times and days where work is or is not possible. This insight helps to optimize offshore operations, by improving both cost efficiencies and safety.

Optimize operations with weather intelligence

Offshore companies have been challenged to do more with less and to optimize their operations. These pressures are driving companies to look at every option possible to increase the days they can be at sea, including how accurate and reliable weather forecasts can help minimize expensive weather-related downtime.

Decisions made on Marginal Weather conditions can have significant consequences on a project. Make the right call, and you can increase the days working on a project; get it wrong, and it can lead to unnecessary downtime.

It is important that these decisions are made with as much confidence as possible, with regular updates supported with accurate data.

MeteoGroup, for example, will support projects with a variety of weather forecasting services and software tools, including daily weather forecasting services, up to four times per day, helping the vessel to remain in position by reporting insight such as heavy seas, sudden changes in swell direction or changes in current direction.

Choose effective insight over cheap suppliers

The downside of efficiency drives means that some companies choose the cheapest supplier, regardless of quality and accuracy. But this can be a false economy, as more accurate data and the right service level mean you can get the best out of your vessels and your team. By using accurate weather data as part of project planning, it’s possible to see whether the risk is going to be a problem for the project. And, crucially, increase the operability of your vessel. On average MeteoGroup has proven to increase workable days for our clients by 2 days per project through our weather room expertize, service level, and accuracy in data.

NowCastingPro helps establishes the weather risks, by providing hourly data, forecast out to five days. Forecasts are updated four times per day with a spatial resolution of 10km. It also has global coverage, including all major oil and gas basins.

Investing in robust weather technology will help win extra days on the project for your crew and vessel. Failing to invest in weather services can mean that you don’t have the data required to make the close calls on vessels, costing time and money.

Learn more by reading our new case story:

Why Weather Intelligence is Crucial for the Offshore Industry

There are strict rules for the weather conditions in which we are allowed to transport the heavy foundations. To use personnel and material efficiently, we need accurate weather data, tailored specifically to our location